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More easily accessible and not quite as gritty as Gentleman,
but still realistic and truthful. But I know that the burning question
in your mind—it was the one in mine, at any rate—is probably this: IS
THIS A CRYING BOOK? Well, that's a pretty major spoiler. So I shall
leave the answer to that question in the comments section.

While it’s not a title that has inspired me to gush, it’s a solid debut
and a solid book: I have absolutely no complaints. Lexi’s narration is
clear and honest, her guilt about what happened back in New York is
understandable and palpable, and the friendship storyline is given just
as much weight as the romance. Howard shifts back and forth between past
and present so smoothly that, by the time Lexi's past catches up with
her, the groundwork has been laid to allow for a reaction worthy of one
of her beloved Regency romances...while still being emotionally
believable.

While I liked the basic premise of Stung—bees die out, which
basically causes the apocalypse (no bees, no food; no food, people freak
out; scientists try to save the bees and accidentally create a rage
virus; the haves create a governmental structure that is focused on
their own survival, and to hell with the have-nots)—I couldn't get over
my issues with the main character. The issues, though, are somewhat
spoilery, so if you're planning on reading it, I'd suggest skipping the
rest of the post.

Martha Wells’ Emilie and the Hollow World is so entertaining,
so compelling, SO MUCH FUN that it made me do something that I haven’t
done since the fourth grade: When my lunch break was over, I just kept
on reading by super-stealthily hiding my book under the desk. Which
would have been less obvious if I’d been sitting in my office rather
than the library’s circulation desk. Happily, judging by all of the
smirks I caught, my patrons apparently approve of the appearance of my
(usually Inner) Bad Librarian.

Beyond Jazz, who's such a fabulous narrator that I'd recommend the book
for his voice and characterization alone, everything else here is
straight-up, flat-out super. The mystery and investigation, the
friendships, the secondary characters, the depiction of media and its
view of Jazz as a commodity, the pacing, the atmosphere, everything.
There's a wonderful balance between dark humor and actual gravity,
between real life and epic drama.

[Azure] definitely dominates, and she's also much harder to like, mostly
because her behavior is so hypocritical: she's supposedly hugely
open-minded and stridently opposes People Judging Each Other, but she's
very dismissive of people who have opinions different than her own, and
she judges other people on the basis of their appearance on a regular
basis. BUT, realizing that is a big part of her personal journey.

The technical details about the investigation (especially the methods of
the dive team) are worked in naturally, and fans of procedural/forensic
mysteries are bound to like those elements. Similarly, fans of The Mentalist will
like the subplot that deals with the faker psychic lady. Oh, and it's
worth noting that John Robertson is creepy as all get out, but while
there's certainly an implied threat of sexual assault, nothing like that
ever happens onscreen.

Enjoying No Safety in Numbers will require some suspension of
disbelief and for readers to avoid thinking too hard about details.
You’d think, for instance, that a mall large enough to house a
rock-climbing gym and an ice rink would, A) have some showers somewhere,
if not an actual gym, and B) have at least a bare-bones custodial staff on hand during the day. But, no. Not this one.

The original characters—Carver's peers, their adoptive parents, the
Pinkerton detectives—read more like stock characters than real people,
but Teddy Roosevelt and Alice, especially, really shine. I didn't form
emotional attachments with anyone, but some of their relationships were
affecting: Carver and Finn's sloooow journey from enemies to allies was
especially well done, in that it was organic and subtle. Also, although
Carver is mostly an Everyboy Type, he's not perfect, which always makes
for more interesting reading. The mystery itself is spun out very well,
and the climax/reveal is fabulous: yes, I guessed where it was going,
but not because of any missteps on the author's part. I'M JUST THAT
SMART.